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Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals’ accident and emergency services will be reconfigured under current plans for reconfiguring health services in North West London. Both hospitals currently have a GP-led urgent care centre co-located with an emergency department. Patients who refer themselves for emergency care are unable to access the emergency department without being seen by a GP or emergency nurse practitioner in an urgent care centre. We present early data on the evaluation of the two the urgent care centres that was published in a letter in the BMJ.

From 1 October 2009 to 31 December 2012, 282 947 unplanned attendances occurred at these centres, 63.2% of them at Charing Cross Hospital. The annual number of attendances increased by 9.4% (7911) from 2010 to 2012 (92 303 in 2012). Most attending patients (85.3%) were registered with a general practice, and 47.7% of attendances occurred outside of general practice core hours. The most common category of primary diagnosis was “…

The requirement of bowel surgery is dramatically reduced by up to 60% in patients who develop Crohn's disease if they receive prolonged treatment with drugs called thiopurines concludes a new study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Crohn’s disease affects more than quarter-of-a-million people in the UK leading to an inflamed intestine.Researchers from St George’s, University of London, St George's Hospital, London and the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College, London analysed data from the medical records of more than 5,000 patients in the UK living with Crohn’s disease for more than 20 years and looked at the effect of thiopurine drugs that suppress inflammation in the gut.

Gastroenterologist Dr Richard Pollok, an honorary senior lecturer at St George’s, University of London, said “Our discovery is timely since new guidelines from the USA have played down the benefits of these drugs in favour of newer agents. A year of treat…